Embodiments relate to magnetic levitation and, more particularly, to providing vibration isolation with magnetic levitation.
Magnetic levitation involves suspending an object with no support other than magnetic fields. Magnetic force is used to counteract the effects of the gravitational and any other accelerations. One issue involved in magnetic levitation is providing an upward force, or lift, sufficient to counteract gravity. Another issue is stability, more specifically insuring that the system does not spontaneously slide or flip into a configuration where the lift is either diminished causing the levitated item to fall or sharply increased causing it to stick. This is often referred to as the refrigerator magnet problem.
Magnetic levitation traditionally operates on the principal of magnetic attraction and as such is statically unstable in all six degrees of freedom, lift (or levitation), pitch, roll, yaw, lateral displacement and longitudinal displacement. Due to such instability, levitation must be controlled in levitation height, pitch, roll, lateral displacement, yaw and longitudinal displacement. Existing levitated systems are extremely sensitive to the smallest irregularities and thus difficult to provide stable control for an object that is levitated.
Manufactures of such levitation systems and users would benefit from being able to magnetically levitate an object where environmental effects are isolated to provide for vibration isolation of the object levitated.